A film and art blog by Tim Schroyer

Category Archives: Actor

Hey everyone, I am back. I have been laying low for the last 4 1/2 months. A lot is going on with with me. I have lots of responsibilities now: I am leading a veterans mental health advocacy group, on the Board of Trustees for a veterans art center, my radio show, writing various things, starting a new personal blog, returning to filmmaking, starting a film company, and returning and this blog.

Anyway, I am starting to watch Film Courage’s interviews again. If you are an actor, screenwriter or a filmmaker you need to watch Film Courage interviews. You will get so much out them. They have a YouTube channel and they post every week.

I have been watching an interview they recently did with the actor and director the great Bill Duke. I think you will get a lot out of it, so enjoy

So I been thinking about what I want to accomplish year. This past year was not my been my strongest. I feel I failed in many ways. The film I am developing got put on hold, I was not committed to this blog like I should, I did not get my production company up and running and didn’t make much art. So I am not happy with myself.

That being said I want the this year to be amazing. Make the year a new start for me. I have given some thought to what I want to do and here is what I have so far: Grow personally. I am starting to work on improving me. My Health, my work and my personal life. I have started to get into Robin Sharma on how to become the best me I possible can be. I think that it doesn’t hurt to get into self improvement. God knows I need too.

This blog: Yes I used to write in this blog often, but have gotten away from it. I want to build this blog back up and turn it into a leading film blog. I want to share my journey as a filmmaker, artist and as a creative. Then there is giving you readers information you can use out there. Things I find. I also am going to have guest writers like Ken Anthony help provide content. I will be shooting for over 200 post this. Ambitious yes., but I think you’ll all get a lot out of it. A few years ago Ted Hope had Hope for Film blog. I got so much out of it and learned a lot. I want to do the same thing with this blog for you.

Production Company: This is the year I officially start my production company. That means making it a legal entity. People will go around claiming they have a production company yet it is not a legal company; which means they do not really have a production company. Filmmaking is a business as well as an art form. When I think about projects I am thinking in two art forms: the art of telling a story visually and the art of business. It is important that you think this way. It helps give you realistic picture of what you can do when making your film.

Film Projects: Right now I have two film project: one is a short about a writer that is having an existential crisis who talks to the ghost of Jack Kerouac and my film dealing with sexual violence in the form of sex trafficking and combat veterans issues. I took a long break from this project. I am now coming back to it. I have to finish researching it and then write. I will have a first draft in 4 months. After rewrites, I will then package the film and start looking for investors. I want to start shooting this film at around the end of this year. Now for the short, the goal is to shoot it in May. This gives us enough time to raise capital to shoot it, do perproduction and then shoot it. I will also be playing Jack Kerouac. I have already started to grow my hair out for the role and reading up on Jack. We will be submitting this film to Sundance, SXSW, TriBecca and TIFF. We have that kind of confidence in this film to submit it into those film festivals. We have a great screenplay and talented people working on it. One of them is Ken Anthony who will be a producer.

Advocacy: Another thing I will be doing is advocacy work. One of the reasons I am a filmmaker is that it allows me to talk about issues I care about. One of those issues is sexual violence. Now on 2011 I started on the feature, and I got very much side tracked, which I will be going into in the near future, and now I am back to working on it. Now the issue has evolved to sex trafficking which is rape for profit and I get to discuss it. Same goes for combat veterans issues. We have been at war and it has taken its toll on many who fought in it. I already do veterans mental health advocacy work here in Tampa, and this film helps me further that discussion to even a larger crowd.

Film Society: Tampa needs a true film society. We have organizations that have film society in there name, yet they do not act like a real film society. They are more like AV clubs with a membership fee, they are not cultural institutions which film societies are suppose to be: They do not have programs that teach media literacy. They do not serve the public interest but only their own. Which is fine, but they are not true film societies. This will be a 501 c3 non-profit organization. It will bring cinema appreciation to the people of the Bay Area. We will start programs that teach media literacy to children in schools. We will celebrate cinema as a community. It will showcase filmmakers like Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Ford Coppola, Sergio Leone, Scorsese, Allen and many more. It will have programs for filmmakers. It will celebrate independent cinema.

Become the Master of my Craft: I am going to learn and become an expert in filmmaking.This is something I think we all should do. I have numerous books on filmmaking at every level. Thirtbooks.com is your friend. I have gotten many books on filmmaking from thriftbooks and and have been diving into them. I want to know as much as I possible can for a few reasons: One to avert disaster, if you know how do something the right way you will be likely to make costly mistakes. Another reason is it helps you be a better leader. If you have knowledge in a certain, you can speak and lead with authority. You can help other and give guidance. Most of all be helpful to others, and it is also about being a professional. Professionals know their craft and know it well. And of course it betters my chances of success.

I am looking for an editor. I think it would benefit me greatly.

And soon I am going to explain the events of February 2013 that had much to do with my film.

Yes, you are going to fail. And fail hard. I am going to fail, and fail hard. I am probably failing at grammar right now. It is what you and I do with that failure is what is the difference between successful people and those who never rise above. I have failed numerous times, yet here I am still working and moving forward. I have learned from those failures and make the best out of them.

If your parents never let you failed as a child they truly cheated you out of the best lesson they could given you. If you are reading this, and you are reading and have kids, let them fail and fail hard. Then turn around teach them that it it ok to fail. Teach them to get right back up, learn from their mistakes and try again but even harder. This, besides manners, is the greatest gifts you can give.

Here is the truth, I am a shitty ass artist. At least in my mind. Yet I am going back to making art once again. Hopefully I dig some of my work and maybe someone else will enjoy it, or at the very least, lie to me. Yet I try and learn. One day I hope to make pieces that I will approve of and think it is good. As a filmmaker I have made numerous mistakes, but difference is I have learned from them, and it has made me a better filmmaker. I will fail again and again, and each time take that failure and grow.

That is right, tomorrow is the Grey Room Crowdfunding Kickoff Party. We will begin our Indiegogo campaign and you are invited.

We are having out party at The Hub. 719 N Franklin St, Tampa, Fl, which is the greatest bar, like a real bar, in the world. Be aware that there drinks are very strong so do not slam them. Anyways, We are having this party to A. Bring attention to our Crowdfunding campaign B. To just give people a reason to have a good time and to bring closer our community and C. To bring attention to ourselves and build our audience and build our Brand.

We will have have the cast and crew of Grey Room: Linda Roser, John O’Keef, Leon Salem Kathrine Michelle. Lydia Edwards, Jeannine Fiallo, Brandon Hyde, Tony Tartaglia, Lakiasha Olds, William Wright. They are great people who work very hard and are talented . We will be showing our out Pitch video and trailer.

Please come out. This is our first event and we will more. I like getting together and hanging out with good people like you.

I just wanted to give an update on what is happening to Filmmakers Speak speaking series; it will be put on hold until January 2013. I have a lot going on right and the holiday season is coming up. I am working on a wonderful line up of speakers, ones that I think will be beneficial to the Tampa Bay area film and art community.

Also during this time I will be looking for sponsors so that I can truly grow Filmmakers Speak to the level that I want it to be. I would like to bring speakers from out of town. People Like Ted Hope, Sheri Candler and Jon Reiss. However this will take money and an good infrastructure to accomplish that.

If you have any ideas for speakers,let me know. I want this to be a two way conversation.

I have some news about Grey Room. As you may or not know we have had some problems getting our crowdfunding pitch video done. We have had audio issues with the first 3 attempts and finally yesterday we shot our 4th pitch and I know we got it. I will write more in detail about that however I, as the producer, take full responsibility for the delays and the pushing back of the dates.

Here is what is happening, we are pushing the crowdfunding campaign to 15 February 2013 and we begin shooting 13 April; and here is why, we would have the pitch edited by Friday and then, depending if we need more editing, we would start next week. Add 45 days of crowdfunding and that would bring us to the beginning of December; then 2 weeks of final per-production and then we would shoot. In the middle of December, and as you know Florida winters are unpredictable; it could be amazing gorgeous or it could be brutally cold. We have a pool scene and we do not want our actresses freezing their asses off and possibly getting sick. It is just not worth it. So what we have decided to push it back. However, this in many ways this is good; by the time the film is finished it will be time to be submitting film into the major film festivals. Which is where we want to put Grey Room.

The other day I was bungee jumping with a group people, with whom I did not know, and the statement was made that “You never see enough Awesome Asian Bad Guys.”; and they couldn’t be more correct. We as a society and as a Republic we need more Awesome Asian Bad Guys. Don’t you think? It would have been refreshing to have heard at least 5 minutes of the Presidential Debates dedicated to how the two candidates would bring to our country more Awesome Asian Bad Guys; however they did not. But as fate would have it the guys from the National Film Society are doing just that.

Stephen Dypiango and Patrick Epino have developed a 5 episode series about two filmmaker who ensemble a team of Asian bad guy actors who set off to take down one of LA’s most nefarious mobsters. This of course will lead to great fun; if you’ve watched any of Stephens and Patrick’s National Film Society youtube post, then you know just how funny and creative these guys are. Plus, they are some of the most passionate filmmakers that are out there.

They have assembled some great talent: Al Leong who was in Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure; Yuji Okumoto who you seen in Karate Kid 2, Better Off Dead and Inception; The Lovely Tamlyn Tomita who was in Karate Kid 2, Joy Luck Club and Glee; Randell Park who was in The Five year Engagement, and last but not least Aaron Takahashi who you’ve seen in a ton of commercials.

Stephen Dypiangco (@dypiangco) – Creator / Director
Stephen is an independent filmmaker who writes, directs and produces narrative films, documentaries and online videos. His new media production company the National Film Society has been featured by PBS, Filmmaker Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, GigaOM and Indiewire. As a Producer of Marketing and Distribution, Stephen’s recent projects include the Oscar-winning short film God of Love and the feature documentary How To Live Forever. Stephen is an alum of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and NYU’s graduate film program.

Patrick Epino (@patrickepino) – Creator / Director
Patrick is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker and co-founder of the National Film Society. He was selected by the film magazine, The Independent, as one of its “10 Filmmakers to Watch” for his first feature film, Mr. Sadman, starring Scoot McNairy and Tim Kang, about a 1990 Saddam Hussein double who loses his job and moves to Los Angeles to start his life over. Patrick is a graduate of the University of Chicago, earned his MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University and is an alumnus of the IFP Narrative Labs and Film Independent’s Project:Involve.

Yes, I totally copied and pasted that. Sue me.

Now, Stephen and Patrick have only 3 days left to raise around 16,00 dollars, and they need your help. To make all this a reality they need you t go to their Crowdfunding Campaign page and donate. They have a lot of really great premiums as thank you gifts and the full list of all the talented people that they have on this project. Also, they have a lot of entertaining videos there too. Seriously do yourself a favor and look Nation Film Society on youtube. Brilliant stuff there.

Also you can help by spreading the word; tell all your friends by posting this blog and their kickstater page on all your social media outlits. And if you support them I will save a gorilla in the wild, and if you don’t I will kill one. It is true, I will.